Community Education: Student Empowerment

Assignment 1: History and Autobiography

Essay Assignment (Autobiography & History): According to sociologist C. Wright Mills, we can always discover an intersection between autobiography and history. Each person’s life unfolds within a particular historical period, and an individual can understand their own experience by locating their life within history. Each person’s life is shaped by historic events such as war, immigration, racism, oppression of women, economic recession, civil unrest, etc. As C. Wright Mills states, this discovery "in many ways is a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one." For this Essay Assignment, each student will write a three-to-five page autobiography linking their life to history. Students should provide some background information about themselves (where they were born, where they live, what are the important things in their life, what are their life aspirations, etc.). However, they should focus their essays on three main questions: 1) How does their life intersect with history? (Have certain historical events, such as war, immigration, etc. shaped their lives or influenced their life plans?) 2) Why is the discovery of the intersection of autobiography and history "in many ways a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one"? 3) Once a person has discovered this intersection, what meaning does this discovery have for that person’s life? This assignment is due by Friday, Oct. 5.

My Role in Governing Change

By Mina T. Son

I was born in 1979 in Anaheim, California, just escaping the days of disco, bell-bottoms, and the Bee Gees.  Even worse, my childhood years in the 1980’s were spent with Republicans and bad clothes.  Fortunately, the 1990s were better, however I did not grow up experiencing such significant American social movements as Glenn Omatsu had.  Although I wish I had because I could have gained incredible insight had I been there to experience it first hand. 

I was born in America, my parents were born in Korea.  We are all however United States citizens.  I view myself as a Korean-American, they view themselves as Koreans living in America.  But my parents do not intend to go back to Korea one day.  They came to America not as sojourners, but as immigrants.  Perhaps the reason why they feel like Koreans living in America is because that is how others view and treat them.  I can affirm that I am an American, but for them it is difficult to do so even though all three of us are rightfully Americans.

My parents’ home is in Orange County.  My entire years of growing up there were spent in the city of Garden Grove.  It was beneficial for my family because there is a fairly large Korean community in Garden Grove, even boasting of a mini Koreatown. I was also fortunate to have grown up with other ethnic communities around.  There is a significant Vietnamese as well as Latino population in Garden Groveand neighboring cities.  So not only did I grow up seeing my own people, but people of different backgrounds.  This opened my eyes to diversity, but it also pointed out the existence of discrimination and racism.  Discrimination and racism was not merely between the White Americans and ethnic Americans, but between ethnic groups as well.   

The point I am at now is a transition point for me.  Almost a college graduate, one would think I hold a firm grasp on my future plans, but I do not.  I do know that I enjoy a great deal learning about other cultures.  I love to travel.  Travelling opens so many doors that I would not have had access to living inAmerica alone.  I feel it is incredibly important to learn about others who are different from us.  But before learning about people in different countries, I think it is essential that Americans learn and open their minds to other Americans. 

I feel very strongly about the need for racial and ethnic acceptance in America.  I was going to say the need for racial tolerance, but to tolerate is not enough.  As Americans, people need to accept, understand, and embrace one another.  In various classes, I have learned about America’s ugly history composed of the discriminatory laws created against Asian immigrants, explicit acts of racism, and numerous hate crimes committed against people of color.  But I have also seen acts such as these committed in my own community and committed against my peers. 

Hate crimes appear to be proliferating in communities around the country.  Naively, I would have thought that it would be less likely in California, considering the wide range of ethnic communities living together.  Perhaps I was hoping that there was more of a willingness to accept differences in places like California.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  With the recent terrorist attacks, the ‘attacks’ on Arab-Americans or Arab looking Americans in California has been rampant.  I have an Egyptian American friend whose father’s close friend, also Egyptian, was shot and killed in the store he owned.  The gunman came in, shot the man, and immediately left having accomplished his goal.  In Anaheim, a few minutes from my home, a Pakistani American man’s restaurant was burned down taking away all his efforts, hard work, and any last sense of hope.

I realize that I am living in a country that discriminated against people of a different background a hundred or so years ago and is committing acts of the same kind still to this day.  The difficulty in coming to this realization that my life intersects with this aspect of history is that what were once seen as historical events are now current events for me.  These events are affecting not only my life, but also the lives of my family and friends.  And because they affect me, I cannot ignore them.  It is therefore “in many ways a terrible lesson” as C. Wright Mills states about the discovery of current life intersecting with history because it reveals that there are still many things that need to change in America.  It is naïve to think as I once thought, that the past is behind and that America has learned from its mistakes, because that is yet to be achieved.   However as terrible as the lesson may be, Mills also describes the discovery “in many ways a magnificent one,” because reaching the discovery is a beginning to governing change.

For me, having discovered this intersection, I feel empowered.  I feel that I have the ability to change things within my lifetime.  It also signifies my role in history and how as an agent I can educate and advocate change.  As a nation in time of crisis people say America is now coming together, but is that truly the case?  I want to open dialogue between people, between neighbors, and between communities.  Now that I am aware about the injustices, I cannot be silent.  To be silent would be to let history repeat itself again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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